


For thine is the kingdom

by ShariDeschain



Series: The Graysons AU [1]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Kingdom Come (Comics), Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Batfam Week 2017, Damian is Dick and Kory's son and Mar'i's brother, Domestic Fluff, Family Feels, Gen, and they're happy thank you very much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-18
Updated: 2017-06-18
Packaged: 2018-11-15 17:33:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11235867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShariDeschain/pseuds/ShariDeschain
Summary: The first time Damian wears the Nightwing uniform he’s eighteen, the same age Dick was when he decided that Robin was his past and not his future anymore.Or, his children are growing up, and Dick's having a hard time accepting it.





	For thine is the kingdom

**Author's Note:**

> The basic idea for this AU is pretty much the original Morrison run with the addition of Dick and Kory being married and already having Mar’i when Damian came along in the picture. So when Bruce “died” and Dick replaced him as Batman, he and Kory just officially adopted Damian and raised him as their own, thank you very much.
> 
> Two big inspirations I have to credit: Kingdom Come (... _duh_ , I know, but I’ve recently reread it and god, I love it) and [@dar-draws amazing Dickkory+Damian&Mar’i fanarts](http://dar-draws.tumblr.com)
> 
> Written for [Batfam Week, Day 5: Legacy](https://unavenged-robin.tumblr.com/post/161974588368/for-thine-is-the-kingdom)

The first time Damian wears the Nightwing uniform he’s eighteen, the same age Dick was when he decided that Robin was his past and not his future anymore. Dick tries not to make dangerous equations about the two of them and just pushes the thought aside. Damian’s not going through an identity crisis, he’s just filling in for a night per Dick’s own request. 

Tonight he’s supposed to meet with one of his lead regarding a big case GCPD’s been working on for over a year now, but a long and less than thrilling chase through the sewers has left him with a sprained ankle, and his source will not talk to anyone else but Nightwing. Damian found it funny and accepted right away to replace him, if only to spend the night teasing him about how old and slow Dick’s getting (and Dick swats him around the head and laughs with him at every joke, but deep down he does wonder. Five years ago, this wouldn’t have happened at all, and even if it had, it wouldn’t have prevented him from doing his job anyway.)

Now he sits on the couch in the sweatpants he uses as pyjamas, fidgeting with his crutch and waiting for Damian to step out his bedroom. He has already a joke on the tip of his tongue about Damian’s ass not being up to the part, but before the kid finishes changing, the front door opens with a bang and Mar’i comes running in the living room with a grin spreading all over her face.

“Is he still here?”, she asks Dick, then she makes her way into Damian’s room without waiting for the answer. “Damian! I want to see!”

“What- Get out!”, Damian shouts back. “Dick!”

“Oh c’mon, don’t be a prude!”, Mar’i teases him, and Dick can’t see them, but he hears the beginning of a scuffle and sighs.

“Mar’i, let him change in peace!”, Dick calls out after his daughter, but he’s kind of smiling at Damian’s outraged protests and Mar’i delighted laughs. Also, he has no intention of getting up for now, so they better sort it out on their own.

He hears the front door closing, and waits for Kory to join him on the couch. She promptly curls against his side, long legs tucked beneath her, and she leans forwards to kiss him on the cheek to greet him.

“Big night, mh?”, she asks with a smile, mouth still so very close to his face, and Dick only needs to turn his head around to meet soft, warm lips, and kiss her again.

“It’s actually pretty chill”, he answers, smiling back at her. “Just a contact exchange with an old informer of mine, and then a follow-up with the police. Knowing Damian’s love for chit-chatting, it’s gonna be over in less than a hour.”

Kory hums and gives him an almost condescending look, the one that after years of marriage Dick’s learned to translate as a “ _I know you’re trying to be cute but it’s so not working, honey_ ”.

“Not for him”, she points out for good measure. “For you.”

“Oh, c’mon”, Dick winces, sounding peculiarly just like his daughter. “Don’t make me feel even more like an old man.”

Kory smiles and cups his face with her hands.

“But I love my old man.”

“No honey, you see, you should’ve said something like _but Dick, you are still young and awesome and as good looking as the day I meet you for the first time!_ ”

“That’s not how my voice sounds like”, Kory laughs. “And you _are_ still good looking, even if you now have grey hair.”

“I do not have grey hair”, Dick objects immediately. “I told you, it’s just the light’s reflection giving that impression.”

A loud giggle and an explosion of muffled hisses attract their attention and they both turn their heads towards the still half closed door.

“Kids, is everything alright?”, Kory asks.

“Mom, you’re going to have a heart-attack!”, Mar’i yells back, giggling again. “He just looks _so much_ like Dad!”

“Why would that give her a heart-attack?”, Damian protests loudly. “She knows what I look like!”

“Yeah but look at _that!_ ”, a slap sound and another giggle follow the exclamation and Dick, strong of his fifteen years of experience in parenting, immediately recognizes the pattern of an imminent fight.

“Why don’t you both come out and let me decide if this is worth a cardiac arrest or not?”, Kory interjects, probably having detected the same threat.

Damian mutters about the ridiculousness of this whole thing and something else that sounds suspiciously like a “ _why does everything turn into a circus in this family_ ”, but Mar’i, as usual, pays him no mind.

“Here we come! Be ready!”, she shouts cheerfully, and Damian’s sigh is more than audible even from the living room.

Dick and Kory obligingly stand up in all the seriousness they can muster, as the door of Damian’s bedroom opens wide with another loud bang - and that reminds Dick that sooner or later he’ll need to have a little chat with Mar’i about this thing she has for flaring entrances and banging doors (something he’s been unjustly accused to have passed on her several times, by the way).

Mar’i steps out first, and with a pirouette that would make her aunt Cass very proud, she turns back and opens her arms to introduce the new Nightwing for the night.

“ _Ta-da_!”

Damian gives her his best homicidal glare as he follows her into the living room.

“Stop embarrassing yourself, Mar’i”, he grumbles, crossing his arms on his chest, but by the soft brushes of pink on his cheeks, it’s not Mar’i the one being embarrassed by her stunts.

“Oh, sweetheart”, Kory literally cooes, once she gets a look at him. “You look so good!”

Damian’s blush intensifies visibly and he doesn’t even reproach her for the pet name. He does, however, turn towards Dick, obviously waiting for his opinion on the matter at hand. Dick, for his part, just stares at him for a long moment.

It’s one of his old costumes, the black and blue one with the fingerstrips, and Damian dons it pretty well, he has to admit. He’s still leaner than Dick was at his age, but the muscles are all there, and the body suit was easy to adapt. He automatically reaches out to take both of Damian’s hands in his own, so to quickly inspect the gauntlets and their fully loaded compartments, checking all the basic equipment even if he already knows everything is going to be in order. 

Damian stays unusually quiet and doesn’t protest the treatment (very much unlike his younger version when they were at the beginning of their run as the new Batman and Robin, Dick muses) and even Kory and Mar’i don’t interrupt the sudden weird gravity of the moment.

Once he’s finished with the gauntlets, Dick grabs Damian’s shoulder and gently spins him around to get a look at the eskrima clubs and their poaches, making sure the springs are working correctly. Satisfied by his inspection, Dick smiles and gives Damian a swift slap on the ass, making him jump forwards.

“Lookin’ all good here, ‘Wing”, he laughs, and so do the girls.

Damian turns around and punches him lightly in the middle of his chest, but he’s smiling too.

“Tt. Obviously”, he replies.

“Doesn’t he look just like Dad when he was young?”, Mar’i repeats, still obviously amazed by the resemblance.

“Hey!”, Dick protests, not-so-slightly offended. “I’m still young, thank you very much!”

“Oh no”, Kory answers at the same time, completely ignoring him, one hand now brushing Damian’s cheek. “He’s a lot more handsome than Dick ever was. If at that time I had to choose between the two of you, I would definitely choose you, Damian.”

“Hey!”, Dick shouts again.

“...Mom! Ew!”, Damian and Mar’i shout at the same time, and Kory laughs.

“Just being honest here.”

“Oh my god!”, Mar’i screams. “I just had an amazing idea!”

“I understand the excitement for such an uncommon occurrence”, Damian complains. “But can you stop screaming into my eardrum?”

Mar’i ignores him altogether and just smiles at all of them.

“Wait here.”

“I think it’s almost time to go, actually”, Damian says, looking at the clock hanging on the opposite wall.

“Oh nonononono, please wait. Wait here a moment”, Mar’i repeats, and she quickly disappears into her parents’ bedroom.

“Well, I guess we’ll wait then”, Dick decides, raising an eyebrow. “You need any help with the mask?”

Damian shrugs in that way that means _not really_ , but he does hold out the domino mask when Dick makes grabby hands for it, and doesn’t complain when Dick starts to spread the glue on the edges.

“You’ll have to smile a lot, you know?”, Dick says colloquially while he works.

“I don’t really see why.”

“Because that’s Nightwing’s character. He’s a funny guy.”

Damian snorts.

“He only thinks he’s funny.”

“Smartass”, Dick replies while gesturing for him to stand still.

Damian’s hair is getting long, he notices, and remembers that both Bruce and Alfred keep grumbling about it. Usually Damian just shakes his head at them, ready to point at Dick and Tim anytime the issue is brought up out loud - there even was a really funny moment when Bruce tried to objected to that with a “ _maybe you should take example from Jason instead”_ , and everybody just looked at him for a solid thirty seconds before starting with the mockeries. To this day, Bruce is still paying for it. 

Focussing back on his task, Dick carefully sweeps Damian’s long hair out of his eyes with one hand and fixes up the domino with the other, pushing his fingers along the hems to make sure of their adherence to the skin. He’s perfectly aware of Damian’s mindful gaze never leaving his face, but he doesn’t comment on it. Damian’s being more than compliant all night and he has no intention of looking a gift horse in the mouth.

When he steps back to admire the finished work, Dick’s almost taken aback by the multitude of feelings tightening his chest. Pride and worry, love and regret, hoping to be doing the right thing and wondering what the right thing really is, if there is even a right thing at all.

He also wonders if this is how Bruce felt the first time he saw Dick wearing the cape and the cowl. Wonders what would be the corresponding milestone of this moment if they were a normal family. Giving Damian the keys of his car to go to the prom? Watching him go to the college or coming back from it? It’s ridiculous, honestly. He feels ridiculous. And old. So very old.

“Is everything alright?”, Damian asks with a frown.

Dick blinks up at him.

“Yes Damian, I was just-”

“He’s just doing his old man thing, don’t worry, sweetheart”, Kory answers for him, oblivious to Dick’s offended glare. 

“I’m not-”

“You shouldn’t stand on your ankle like that”, Damian scolds him. “Sit down.”

“Now listen, kid-”

There’s another bang and Mar’i steps in the living room again.

“ _Ta-da!_ ”, she chants, arms up in the air, and they all turn to look at her.

Dick sits down.

He was so not ready for this.

“So, what do you think?”, Mar’i asks, pivoting in middle air.

Dick thinks he was not ready to see Mar’i wearing Kory’s old Starfire costume. At least, with Damian, he had time to prepare for the psychological impact. Now he’s just at loss of words.

Kory’s reaction is, as usual, a lot more on point than his, and Dick smiles at her surprised squeak, laughs when she flies to take their daughter’s hands in hers and they start spinning around just a few inches below the living room’s ceiling.

“You are beautiful, starshine”, Kory says. “Dick, look at her!”

“I am”, Dick assures her.

“ _...damn circus_ ”, Damian mutters again, but there’s a smile in his voice, so Dick decides to let it pass.

“But look at this”, Mar’i adds, slipping away from Kory’s hold and flying to Damian’s side. “Nightwing and Starfire! Just like in your Titan’s days!”

“I see you’ve made a mission to embarrass both of us to death”, Damian answers, looking up at her with a mildly-annoyed glare.

“Shut up”, his sister promptly replies. “Dad, what you think?”

 _Not ready_ , is what Dick thinks for the third time, but he doesn’t say so. He clears his throat to gain some more time and carefully watches both of his kids standing close together. He tries to look past the fact that they look so much like little kids playing dress-up, and just focus on the effect they would do on anyone else.

Just like Damian, Mar’i is smaller than her mother was, but the costume fits her good enough anyway. Her long, black hair is the most distinctive difference he can spot, bu by any means, it’s quite impossible to look at them and not think of older times, not see the legacy they’re willingly inheriting.

 _Just like in your Titan’s days!_ , Mar’i said.

 _Were we ever so young?_ , he wonders.

“I think I’ve never realized how little clothing your mother was wearing up until now”, Dick answers with half a smile, because what he really thinks is better if it remains unsaid.

“Well, your costume didn’t leave much to imagination either, darling”, Kory retorts light-heartedly, and Damian blushes, suddenly self conscious.

“Told ya!”, Mar’i mocks him.

“Shut up!”, Damian hisses, and now at least Dick knows what their previous skirmish was all about.

They have no time time to start arguing again because Kory approaches them with a soft smile on her face and Dick watches her while she fusses around the kids, fixing rebel strands of hair and smothering small creases of the fabric of their costumes. He wonders if she’s having the same doubts and the same regrets, if she’s drowning both in nostalgia and happiness as he is. But Kory, as always, surprises him with something totally unexpected.

“Are you going out together tonight, then?”, she asks, one hand on Damian’s shoulder, the other one caressing Mar’i’s hair, and they both look up at her, surprised just as Dick is at that question.

“What do you mean?”, Damian asks, blinking up in confusion.

But Mar’i is so much quicker than him at grasping the offer her mother just made.

“Yes!”, she agrees, practically jumping with joy. “Yes, yes, yes!”

“No!”, Damian argues mechanically.

“No?”, Kory asks, raising an eyebrow at him. “Why not?”

“It’s a Nightwing mission!”, Damian answers, stressing out the words and looking mildly insulted at the idea of being given a sidekick for the night - probably because he’s not thinking of it in those terms, otherwise Dick’s pretty sure he wouldn’t fight that idea at all. 

“It’s literally just _a chat_. It’s nothing crazy dangerous!”, Mar’i protests. “And even so, I’m more than capable to handle dangerous missions too! Mom, tell him!”

Kory makes to speak, but Damian promptly cuts her off.

“If you need to ask your mother to speak up for you, you really are not”, he sneers.

Mar’i tightens her fists and Dick thinks _here we go_ , but instead of lunging at Damian, his daughter turns towards him.

“Dad?”, she asks, lips pressed together and a look of determination Dick knows pretty well by now.

He bites the inside of his cheek, not liking where this is going _at all_.

“Well, I-”, he starts, locking eyes with his wife, looking for help.

“I think it would be a good thing for them to go together”, Kory states simply. “But of course we should decide this as a family first, and ultimately _it is_ a Nightwing mission, so I will not insist if you think it would compromise it.”

The last bit is aimed at both Dick and Damian, but when Kory looks at the kid to invite him to share his opinion on the matter, Damian only shrugs, relenting almost immediately.

“It’s not that big of a mission”, he grudgingly agrees. “I don’t see how even she could ruin it.”

Mar’i smacks him on the shoulder hard and fast, but then she leans against his arm, and they both look at Dick again.

Talk about pressure.

“I’m not sure-”, Dick starts again, but he knows those are the wrong words to say the moment they leave his lips, and in a moment he’s surrounded and under attack from every side.

“Oh come on, Dad!”, Mar’i whimpers. “Pleasepleaseplease!”

“Yes, come on, Dad!”, Damian grins, backing his sister up more for the sake of drama than anything else, Dick suspects, so he glares at him sternly and with a hidden warning that should not be too difficult for the kid to pick up.

But years of being Robin have left Damian completely unimpressed by subtle reprimands, and Dick’s glare has little to no effect on him nowadays (especially with the Nightwing costume on, Dick realizes.)

“I’ll look after her”, Damian offers anyway, and Mar’i swats him again.

“I don’t need you to look after me! I can flip you over with my pinkie finger!”

Damian’s grin turns into an amused glare.

“Yeah? You want to try?”

“Children, please”, Kory scolds them. “Honey? What are you thinking?”

Dick clears his throat again. He’s not going to win, but he’s been taught to never back away from a fight. So he tries.

“Mar’i is still a bit too young to go out alone.”

She’s already been out several times as Nightstar, both with the Teen Titans and with her family, but this feels somehow different, and a lot more scary from Dick’s perspective.

“She wouldn’t be alone”, Kory reminds him, and Dick scoffs.

“Damian is barely old enough for that too.”

Damian looks very offended by that, which is exactly what Dick was aiming for. It’s a good payback for having sided against him, the little traitor.

“I used to patrol alone when I was ten!”, Damian points out petulantly, crossing his arms on his chest and looking every bit like the sulking ten years old he used to be.

“No, you used to sneak off alone when you were ten”, Dick corrects him, because years of having Damian as his Robin have left him unimpressed too, at least to his children’s antics. “And you were always found and punished for it, were you not?”

“I still was way younger than fifteen when you first took me out as Robin”, Damian unhelpfully reminds all of them.

At that Mar’i glares at Dick with narrowed eyes.

“Is this because he is a _boy_ and I’m a _girl_?”, she asks, stressing out the words to make sure everyone understands how she feels about the subject. 

Dick scoffs.

“You know very well that it isn’t that.”

But now Kory’s glaring at him with the same narrowed eyes and he feels a chill ran down his spine.

“Alright, alright, _fine_ ”, he gives up, raising both his hands in a gesture of surrender. “I get it. My opinion doesn’t really matter, you are all ganged up against me anyway, so I may as well agree with you.”

“Sounds about right”, Damian concedes.

“Damian!”, Kory reproaches him. “That’s not true at all, honey.”

“Is this a yes?”, Mar’i asks at the same time.

And by all his good intentions and the books about parenting he’s read through the years, one thing Dick’s never be able to do is deny something to his children.

“Yes”, Dick sighs.

“Yes!”, his daughter cheers, flying forwards to throw her arms around his neck and kiss him on the cheek. “Yes, yes, yes! Thank you, Dad!”

“Yeah, yeah, okay”, Dick grumbles. “Truth is you all only pretend I have any decisional power around here.”

“So”, Damian butts in. “Are we going or not? Because as funny and embarrassing this conversation’s been, if we don’t leave right now it would’ve been all for nothing.”

“Right”, Dick sighs, then he stands up again and crutches closer to him. “Do you have all the details?”

“You know I do.”

“Yes. I also know I don’t need to tell you to look after Mar’i”, he says out loud, earning for himself a smile from both his daughter and his wife, then he grabs Damian and pulls him closer to whisper in his ear. “But you better look after her, you hear me?”

Damian scoffs and pushes him away half-heartedly.

“You know I would anyway.”

“And if there’s any problem you get in touch with me or Batman. First Batman, then me, since he’ll be the closer one to the two of you. Got it?”

Damian rolls his eyes behind his mask.

“Verbal confirmation, Nightwing.”

“Yes, I got it, Big Old Man first and Slightly-Less-Older Man later”, Damian huffs, earning another swat for his trouble. “Can we go now?”, he asks impatiently.

“One moment”, Dick answers. “Mar’i?”

“Yes Dad, I know”, his daughter replies, looking as impatient as Damian is. “Don’t do anything dangerous, when in doubt defence and not attack is the best way to go, fly away if things get out of hands, etcetera etcetera.”

“Also, for tonight Damian’s in charge”, Dick adds. “You do what he says, okay?”

Mar’i doesn’t look happy about the new rule, especially after seeing the taunting grin on Damian’s lips at Dick’s statement, but she knows better than argue about it (at least in front of her parents, Dick thinks).

“And you don’t be too smug about it. And don’t get cocky, it’s not a little responsibility I’m trusting you with”, Dick warns, turning towards Damian, but he doesn’t put too much heat into his words. For all their bickering around, Damian’s always been very protective of Mar’i, and Dick knows he’ll watch out for her like a hawk. “You’re not too big for a spanking, remember it”, he adds, more light-heartedly.

“You wish, old man”, Damian answers. Then, having obviously running out of his patience for the night, he walks to the window and opens it with a twist of his hand. “Last one to the docks pays for post-patrol ice cream?”, he asks his sister.

“I can fly, you dummy!”, she answers with a scoff. “You’ve already lost!”

“We’ll see”, Damian grins, then he slides onto the staircase just outside the window, closes it again and blocks it with one of his equipment hook.

“You cheater!”, Mar’i yells, outraged both by her brother’s betrayal and her parents’ laughs. “I’ll show it to you!”

“Be careful! Don’t fight!”, Kory calls out after her, as Mar’i flies to the front door. “And have fun!”

“Have fun?”, Dick asks incredulously while he sits back on the couch, feeling the pain of his throbbing ankle more than he would ever admit to anyone.

“We always had fun, didn’t we?”, Kory asks back with a soft smile. “And you, stop worrying about it. They’re both old enough to do this, and it will be good for them. You always said that patrolling with your siblings was your favorite thing.”

“It was. It still is. I just- awn, hell”, Dick sighs. “I’m a helicopter parent, am I not?”

“You don’t look like a helicopter to me”, Kory offers.

Dick moans.

“I’m worse than Bruce.”

“No, you are not”, Kory consoles him, patting his hand like she would with a child.

“...Do you think I should call him? Maybe tell him to keep an eye on them?”

“...That would definitely make you worse than Bruce.”

Another resigned sigh.

“You’re right.”

They sit in silence for a few moments, Kory curled again against his side, Dick’s finger playing with a lock of her long hair. _It’s nice, being like this_ , Dick thinks. And quiet. So very quiet. The kind of quiet you never have with two teenagers in the house.

“Kory?”

“Yes, my love?”

“I’m going after them”, Dick says, and tries to stand up.

Kory laughs and grabs him by his elbow, pushing him back on the couch.

“Oh no, Mister Grayson, you are definitely not”, she says, pulling him closer to kiss him. “The kids are going to be out until dawn at least, and we will definitely not waste this opportunity to be alone for a night, got it?”

“Mh-mh”, Dick hums, cupping her face with one hand and tilting his head to start sucking on her neck.

Kory bites his bottom lip.

“Verbal confirmation, Nightwing”, she scolds him, voice full of hilarity.

Dick laughs against her skin.

“All clear, Boss.”

**Author's Note:**

> BONUS:
> 
> Dick, one hour later, whispering into the phone while Kory’s taking a shower: “Look, I’m not saying you should point all your big brother’s camera on them but- why are you laughing at me? You think this is funny? You are a horrible parent and grandparent, Bruce.”


End file.
